October 10, 2013 4:15pm EDTOctober 10, 2013 4:15pm EDTSaturday against welterweight champ Timothy Bradley Jr., 40-year-old Juan Manuel Marquez will content for a title in a fifth weight division. There's more in the ring, including whiffs of PED rumors and the spector of Manny Pacquiao.

Staff report

Published on Oct. 10, 2013

Oct. 10, 2013

Juan Manuel Marquez has history on his mind. Not Manny Pacquiao, but an accounting of himself in boxing annuls. It all focuses on Saturday's bout with Timothy Bradley Jr.

That fight, a pay-per-view event at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, is for Bradley's WBO welterweight title. Win it, and Marquez will join a select group of fighters to have won titles in five weight divisions.

"You know, Manny Pacquiao is a great fighter and we had a lot of great fights together," Marquez said in the run-up to his Vegas fight. "But I beat him. I knocked him out, cold. I think I won the other fights, but in the fourth fight, I knocked him out and proved who's best. And he's a great fighter, but there are a lot of them and Timothy Bradley is one of them. He has that win over Pacquiao, and he is very tough. He's a fighter, a real fighter.

"When I retire and go away from boxing, I don't want anyone to say, 'Marquez ducked this guy.' I spent my life fighting the best. I want to continue to fight the best for as long as I can do it. And Timothy Bradley is one of the best."

There's s sub-texture to the bout as well. Marquez has been tainted by association with the BALCO scandal involving performance-enhancing drugs. And although he never failed a drug test, but suspension never seems to vanish.

That's why he told said in Los Angeles this week: “I don’t have any problem. I’m happy about the doping tests. I want to prove I don’t a have problem with the testing.”

Three times this year he gave blood urine samples for testing, plus one urine test.

OK, for the record, Marquez is 40, 55-6-1 with 40 knockouts and KO'd Pacquiao in December. But at the fight he appeared bigger in the arms and chest, and his conditioning coach had links to BALCO.